Choices
by Elielephant
Summary: "The world is always left with two choices; it is just up to the foolish humans to make the right one, which is usually the wrong one. Are you willing to take that chance?"


This is just a little one shot I thought up, Law probably is OOC, but don't really know, but if he is sorry about that.

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.

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><p>Choices.<p>

The port town on Lavender Longways, was small, but well off with its mining industry due to the fact that it had some of the rarest minerals and stones in the Grandline, probably even the world. But with great richest there was always a price to pay, which was the poor town was sitting on one of the largest active volcanoes in the world. So the little port town didn't get many tourists, only those with log posts doomed to point towards the volcanic island, and the Heart Pirates were sadly no exception.

None of his crew wanted to even set foot on the island, hell, even Law didn't, but he had a reputation to keep up. He didn't want his rivals to think he was growing cowardly just because of a mountain that could spew out molten, fiery hot lava at any second and kill them all in a slow, burning death. So, just to prove he wasn't scared to his rivals that weren't even there, he went out on the island, though he had to go alone since his crew really didn't care about being called yellow-bellies.

The cowards.

He was surprised by all the people on the island though, unlike his crew who were being dogs with tails in between their knees, the people were actually carefree. Walking around simply, not even noticing the thick, grey smoke polluting the air above them in a steady stream; they just went on with their business, men bartering with shop keepers for goods, woman gossiping about the latest news in the paper, and children all underfoot while they played games of tag.

It was truly an interesting sight, and Law felt his stiff body relaxing at the calm people around him, and he was able to walk easily through the small town, towing the nodachi on his shoulder with ease. But then his good mood was spoiled by a soft tugging on the hem of his hoodie.

With a groan, he turned around and saw nothing. He blinked for a second at the emptiness, but then a voice caught his attention.

"Down here." A withered old voice spoke in a crackly tone that was anything but soothing to the ear.

Craning his neck downward, his eyes locked with a small woman the size of a child, wrapped heavily in a pitch-black cloak, hiding almost her entire face but for her long pointed nose covered with warts and bits of her stringy white hair sticking out from the side of her hood. Though his face remained passive, on the inside he was looking at the wrinkled old hag in disgust.

"You're not from around here, are you?" She questioned him with that annoyingly cracked voice.

"No." he was short with her, wanting to get away from her as quickly as possible.

"Then may I ask of your assistance?" she asked with a small smile, showing her rotting teeth, and making Law's disgust show mildly on his features. "As you can see, I'm a tad bit on the old side of my years. Help from a young lad would be very beneficial." She tried to coo smoothly, but her crackled old voice failed to help her, and Law flinched at the unpleasing sound.

"Miss, I'm sorry to inform you that I will not be helping you in any way." Law replied, giving no explanation of why, though his reasoning was because the little old woman annoyed him, and he turned on his heel sharply, walking away from her quickly.

As he turned the corner of a building, he saw that the old woman hadn't followed him, and he sighed in relief, he didn't need to have some annoying old hag following him around. Though he could always kill her; she did say she was on the older side of her years, putting her out of her misery would actually be a kind thing of him, in his mind at least.

But he put the thoughts of the old woman out of his mind, and carried on his way through town, he needed to get some supplies while he was there at least. So walking to the door of a medical shop, he pushed through, letting the little bell above the frame ring once as he opened the door then a second time as he shut it.

He browsed the shelves, looking at what the small store had to offer, which wasn't much. He would have thought that such a prosperous island would have more then just a few shelves of medicines, salves, and other important things for any doctor to have. Picking up a bottle, he looked it over. It was oddly the only one on the shelf like it, so of course his eye was drawn to it.

Purple glass with a cork keeping the liquid contents in, unlike the other bottles that were see-through neon orange plastic that had white plastic caps twisted on top. Twisting the smooth glass within his fingers, he glanced at the ingredients, and leaned back in shock at what it said then squinted his eyes to make sure he actually read it correctly.

_Good night_.

Was this some kind of sick joke? He was about to put the bottle back, but then there was a sharp smack to his neck followed by the sound of moving metal.

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><p><em>Clang, clung.<em>

_Clang, clung_.

Law's brows twitched at the sound, the sound pounding in his ears, rattling his shaken brain mercilessly.

_Clang, clung._

_Clang, clung_.

He took calming deep breathes, trying to smooth the headache screaming within his mind.

_Clang, clung._

_Clang, clung_.

His head started to clear, and he could make out what the sound was better: footstep, metal incased footsteps, beating the ground in a steady rhythm.

_Clang, clung._

_Clang, clung_.

Opening his eyes slowly, all he saw was darkness. Night had fallen upon the island quickly. How long had he been out? It was only noon when he was in the medical store.

_Clang, clung._

_Clang, clung_.

His eyes stared to adjust to the darkness, and that's when he saw he wasn't moving on his own, but was rather being dragged through the dirt by the back of his hood.

_Clang, clung._

_Slush._

The walking stopped as the metal foot slid in the dirt, and he tried to voice his protest to whomever had dragged him, but his breath was caught in his throat when the hand holding the back of his hood let go and then a second later he saw a hazardous looking gauntlet grab a fist full of the front of his hoodie, swinging him violently up, and there he stared wide eyed at that person who clearly looked like the devil.

Her skin was a thick gloss of crimson red that had matching horns, long and twisted as they sprouted from her forehead and in the middle was a copper design that looked burned into her skin, and it had an odd glow from a light source he couldn't pin-point. Her black hair framed her young face, long and flowing down her back that brought his eye to the deadly looking black armor she wore. It may have been form fitting to all her curves, but the death spikes and skulls weren't much of a turn on in the position he was in since he was dangling off of something, what that was, he didn't know. Looking down, he saw what that glow was on her skin and copper tattoos, and that was that lava bubbling miles down below him.

His hands instinctively latched onto her gauntleted wristed, and he ignored the protest his skin was telling his brain as the small sharp spikes puckered his palms.

"You are very rude, you know." The woman spoke in a smooth tone that would have soothed any man's ear, but once again, in Law's predicament, it didn't help him or make him feeling any better. "Looking at me like that. Didn't your mother teach you not to stare." She glared at him with piercing golden eyes.

"My mother actually did teach me very good manners; I just spiced them up by adding a small mocking twist of my own." Law replied with a weak smirk.

"That's considered rude where I come from." She returned the smirk, and gripped tighter to the fabric in her fist, pulling him closer, and closer to the edge. "Which is also considered a very poor personality trait."

"Then Miss, how would one make up for this poor personality trait." He mused, feeling more confident when he saw his feet were over solid ground.

The horned woman's smirk widened, which made Law feel unbelievably uncomfortable under her gaze, and it only made it worse when her arm extended again, placing his body to hover over the lava pool again.

His grip on her spiked-armored wrist tightened more, and he knew if this kept up, it would draw blood.

"There are many ways, to fix that." She cooed, and Law felt her grip loosening on his hoodie, and he gripped even tighter on her wrist. "For one, I could drop you right now, and never have to worry about your rudeness ever again."

"I hope there is a second choice." Law breathed out through clenched teeth as he felt blood dripping all over her gauntlet. "I prefer to have the flesh on my bones and not burnt to a crisp."

The horned woman chuckled deeply in a low tone with an amused look in her golden eyes. "There is a second one, yes of course. The world is always left with two choices; it is just up to the foolish humans to make the right one, which is usually the wrong one. Are you willing to take that chance?" she mused with a devious look twinkling in her eyes.

"If it means I stay out a pit of molten magma, then yes." He ground his teeth together, trying to keep himself from falling from the loose metal-cased fingers on his hoodie.

"Good." She smiled wickedly, her grip tightening on his hoodie again. "That's the first smart choice you have made human, let's hope you make many more in the time you are in my presence."

Law sighed in relief at the fingers holding tightly to the fabric once more, which he found extremely ironic since he was still dangling over the edge of a volcano, but at least he wasn't on the end of his string to death any more, now he was just barely hanging on with a bit more breathing room. And in his mind, that was a blessing.

"To atone for your sin, you will help me." The horned woman declared with a sound of authority ringing in her voice.

He usually hated it when people ordered him around, absolutely loathed it, but he would make a small exception this time. "Why didn't you say that sooner? I would have said yes right away if I had known you needed help."

She eyed in curiously. "Why, I did ask you for help, do you not remember?"

"I think I would remember a woman like you asking me for help." Law scoffed and rolled his grey eyes.

"So you don't remember." She said simply. "Maybe this will jog that humanistic brain of yours. When I asked for your help you told me: _'Miss, I'm sorry to inform you that I will not be helping you in any way'_." she mimicked his voice exactly from the very tone of how he had said it, causing Law's eyes to open wide and he started to believe his woman was truly the devil. "I'm guessing that rang a few warning bells." She smirked at the shocked look on his face.

"But…" he looked at her with stunned eyes. "You look…"

"Nothing like that old hag you thought to be disgusting?" the woman finished with a snarl through her smirk.

Law blinked at her. She looked like the devil, could speak in different tongues like the devil, and now she knew what he was thinking. The only thing he could think about was that he didn't know that the devil was a woman.

"So will you help me or not?" the horned woman questioned, bringing him out of his thoughts.

He just nodded dumbly at a lost of words.

She smirked with a devilish grin crossing her features as both hands started to curl around the collar of his hoodie.

At first he thought she was going to use him a sacrifice, dropping him into the lava below for some satanic ritual that the devil does, but then she pulled her arms in, letting his feet touch the ground.

He sighed heavily with a shaky breath when he was able to relax into a wobbly standing position, but then he felt a wave of fear cross him when the horned woman leaned close as they straddle the edge.

"Fall with me." She whispered in a husky voice, pushing what little balance he had left and they went tumbling into the volcano's pit.

He didn't scream. That was a cowardly thing to do, to scream, but he did close his eyes tightly, sealing them off to the world so he wouldn't see anything. He didn't want to see his death approaching rapidly, nor did he want to see the horned woman laughing malevolently as the wind rushed passed between them. Then there was the sound of flapping leather and a large burst of wind caused them to stop their fall.

Law jerked to a halt and he felt the sudden force would cause his hoodie to rip from where she was holding the fabric, and his hands clung to her wrists desperately, not caring if any blood spilled out from his skin.

"You made the right choice again, human." She said sweetly in a mocking tone, and Law opened his eyes slowly, but he wished he hadn't.

There was the pit of boiling lava, bubbling and swirling below his feet, so close that he could feel the intense heat, not enough to burn his skin, but enough that his body felt damp with sweat. He heard the horned woman chuckle darkly, and he snapped his head up to see her smirking with his hat now oddly placed upon her head and large black wings sprouting from her back. She even as his nodachi strapped to her hip; he didn't notice that before, though he had a good reason not to.

"You seem scared?" she mused, pulling him up so she could look him in the eye. "Didn't I tell you that if you made the right choices that would live?"

"Something like that." He gasped, holding tighter to her, she was right now his life line and he couldn't let go.

"So you are a good listener, a good quality to have." She teased darkly and her wings flapped harder, pushing them away from the middle of the lava pool and closer to the edge. She placed him on a thin ledge and once his feet touch the rocky surface, her metal covered fingers unwrapped around the fabric of his hoodie, but his hands remained clamped to her wrists. "Make the right choice, human." She warned darkly with a glare that made Law remove his hands instantly.

He stared down at the lava bubbling below him, his back pressed firmly against the heated wall. He was starting to have second thoughts about coming on the island just to prove he wasn't scared of a volcano; he would like to see Eustass Kidd in this position and see if he gets scared out his wits. But he would probably get turned on because of the horned woman: they _were_ both devils.

"Well." Her voice drew his attention from the lava and his dry humored thoughts to her hovering form in the air not to far from where he was standing on the thin ledge called his life. "Get moving human, we don't have time for sight seeing." She glared, placing her hands on her hips.

"Where exactly am I going?" Law looked at her with confused eyes that had a small glaze of fear because of what was below him, not what was in front of him.

She pointed to a small cave opening within the volcano's inner walls.

Law looked at her baffled. "Why don't we just fly over there?"

She smirked and with a small blast of air, forcing his eyes shut for a second and when he reopened them, he saw she was up close to him, looking at him with an evil stare that bore into his eyes. She placed her hands on either side of his head and simply said: "Because I like to see you humans squirm in fear."

Law chuckled dryly with a weak voice. "Good thing I'm not scared of you."

She hummed with laughter in her throat and she pushed away from the wall. "Is that your choice?"

Law stared at her. "My choice?"

She let her laughs escaped passed her lips and she moved towards him again, softly landing in front of him with her hands clinging to the wall by his head and the tip of her metal boots on the ledge. "There are two fears you can pick, which one will it be: me or the volcano?"

Law stared at her. This was not going to be an easy answer, if he picked the wrong one… "I'm…not scared of you." His voice was uncertain as his looked at her amused face.

_Crack!_

Her foot smashed into the ledge where they were standing and fear rushed through the blood in his veins when he felt his body jerk downward with the rocks. And, once again, on instincts, he grabbed a hold of her, wrapping his arms around her neck tightly. If he wasn't in a life or death situation, this would have been a major blow to his ego.

He felt her stiffen when he clung to her as the rocks from under his feet disappeared, followed by the plopping sound and sizzling as they met the thick liquid surface of the lava.

"You…made the right choice…" She said softly with surprised laced in her tone, wrapping her arms around him, as if she was hugging him, and pulled him away from the destroyed ledge, and with a large gust of wind, he felt the sweltering heat of the volcano disappear and the cold night air started to cool his body.

The wind continued to swarm around him quickly and the flapping of her leather wings was the only thing he could hear except for the sound of his racing heart beat. Then all over a sudden it stopped with one last blast of cold air from her wings, he felt his feet on sturdy, solid ground.

She removed her arms from around his body, gently pushing him away, but he wouldn't let go. Who would have after what he went through?

"You can let go now." She said calmly in a reassuring voice that made Law hesitant; he was in the mind set that this woman was the devil in the flesh, but another small nudge from her hand to his chest made him let go, and he was relieved to see he was on a small hill that over looked the town and docks where he saw his yellow submarine.

"Thank you for helping me…" She said timidly, taking his hat from off her head and the nodachi from her hip, handing it all back to him.

He took the hat and the sword from her hands, eyeing her curiously since the smirk on her face was replaced with a small smile. "What are you exactly?" he found himself asking as he placed the hat back on his head. "If you're a devil, then I know someone that would make good company for you. Have you ever heard of Eustass Kidd?"

The horned woman just laughed lightly. "Yes I have heard of him, but since I am not a devil, I don't think he would like my company."

"If you're not a devil, then what are you?" Law watched her move about the hill, making a path in the tall green grass.

"I'm a dragon." She said simply.

Law blinked at her. "Then you're the oddest looking dragon I've seen, at least from what legends I've heard or seen in books."

"Dragons have great magic; they can change into different forms, but this is one of my true forms, the closest to being human. It's a perk to being powerful I suppose, being able to change and blend in." She shrugged, but then she stopped walking and frowned. "But it also as it's down falls."

"Like?" Law looked at her curiously as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"People being scared."

"Well, you kinda put people in terrifying positions." Law bluntly told her.

"But you, unlike the others, chose me over the lava."

Law stared at her. "So people chose death over you."

"They chose death because they were scared of me. I thought all humans were the same, if they were placed in a life or death situation with a deathly object, like the volcano, and a deadly being, like myself, they would chose the object because they know how the death with be, but with the being it is always different. It could be a slow, painful death in different ways, so many different ways. That scares a human from what I have seen, not knowing what death with be like." She explained as she flexed her metal gloved fingers, making the joints squeak together, and then she turned to him. "But you were different. Why weren't you scared of me?"

"You told me if I made the right choices then I would live. So I took that chance." Law shrugged.

"You trusted me on that I wouldn't lie?" She looked at him curiously.

Law smirked at her smugly. "If you didn't just drop me into the volcano upon arriving, I guess you could say that I did."

She blinked at him in shock, and then a sincere smile graced her features. "Thank you, but I guess it doesn't mean much since I almost killed you." Her smile flattered.

Law chuckled dryly. "Ah, I have been in life and death situations before and not as lucky to come out pretty much unharmed like I am now." He said, but then something came to mind. "But if you see Kidd, do the same to him and tell me how he reacts. I do love blackmail."

She nodded to him with a small laugh. "Sounds like a good idea, scaring humans that try to play my game are the best ones to pick on. As you can tell." She smirked to him knowingly. "So until next time." She said shortly with a small, mocking salute and she turned around with her wings unfolding to their full length, flapping once, then twice, making her hovering slowly from the ground.

"Wait!" Law yelled to her over the intense winds.

She calmed her wings so she could hear his voice more clearly and looked down at him with a curious brow raised.

"What is your name?"

She smiled softly. "My name is Lavender, Trafalgar Law." She answered before quickly disappearing into the night sky.

Law just stared as she flew away until there was nothing in the sky but the stars and moon.

How did she know who he was? But he shrugged off the question; if she knew who Kidd was then she was bound to know who he was. Though that wasn't important anymore, what was important was getting back to his sub and taking an extremely long nap: he had a long day, and _really_ long one.

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><p>Lavender is probably a mary-sue, her name is probably mary-sueish. I just named her that because I wanted to tie everything together at the end, and since the island was named Lavender Longways (lavender and lava have the same first three letter, that's why I picked it) I just kinda named her that.<p>

And I don't know if Law would get scared like that, which is why I thought he would be OOC, of course I hope he would be scared if he's in a freaking volcano, but I'm talking about when he's dangling from the edge. I figured that if any person woke up looking at a person that looked like a devil, they would be hesitant, which was why he didn't fight back.


End file.
